Arsenal share sells for new record price – but not to Kroenke

An Arsenal share traded for £31,000 last week, and the current mid-price on the NEX exchange puts the club’s value at well over £2bn.

In total, four shares have changed hands in the last seven days. Two were sold for £29,000 on Friday 2nd March, then another for £31,000 that same day. Then on Tuesday 6th March another went for £29,000.

At this point we can assume Stan Kroenke didn’t buy any of them. Phil of Angry of Islington points out that company directors like him have to declare any sales or purchases of shares in their own companies, which hasn’t happened.

The asking price on the NEX exchange, where shareholders trade Arsenal shares, has continued to rise though. It’s currently at a bid price of £32,000, and an asking price of £37,000. What that means is that you’d have to pay £37,000 to buy a share, but the seller would only take £32,000, with the broker taking the rest.

Therefore, the new mid-price for one share is £34,500. There are 62,219 shares in issue, giving a total club value of £2.147bn on March 8th.

The club’s value on March 1st was £1.835bn. In one week Arsenal’s owners have grown £311.1m richer.

The rise is mostly due to the expectation that at some point Stan Kroenke, Alisher Usmanov or a third party will come in with an offer to buy the entire club.

Since Kroenke and Usmanov have reportedly both made and rejected offers for each other’s stake, other shareholders expect that when one of them finally does accept a takeover bid, it will be even more valuable than the previous offers. The rumoured offer from Kroenke in October was £28,000 a share.

You can almost see the dollar signs in their eyes as the price continues to rise.

Fans are unlikely to see the news as a positive, however, with many fearing Arsene Wenger will be allowed to remain at the club as long as the bottom line is not impacted.

Arsenal fan since a young age, now a season ticket holder who enjoys writing, tweeting and making videos about the Gunners. Also likes: guitar, gaming and lists of three.
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